1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate, in general, to air conditioners and, more particularly, to an air conditioner which includes a plurality of indoor units to respectively condition air of a plurality of rooms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, air conditioners are apparatuses utilizing a refrigerating circuit principle so as to cool or heat indoor air. Air conditioners typically include an indoor unit which is placed indoors and an outdoor unit which is placed outdoors, such that heat is transferred between a refrigerant and indoor air at the indoor unit and between the refrigerant and outdoor air at the outdoor unit so as to cool or heat the indoor air.
In the related art, there are multiunit-type air conditioners which include a plurality of indoor units with a plurality of indoor heat exchangers respectively placed in the plurality of indoor units, so as to cool or heat the air of a plurality of rooms by distributing a refrigerant from an outdoor heat exchanger of an outdoor unit to the plurality of indoor heat exchangers of the plurality of indoor units.
When only specific rooms of the plurality of rooms having the multiunit-type air conditioner are specified to be cooled or heated, specific indoor units which correspond to the specific rooms to be cooled or heated are operated. At this time, the conventional multiunit-type air conditioners are problematic in that rooms which are not specified to be cooled or heated are undesirably cooled or heated, because the liquid part contained in the refrigerant, which is discharged from the indoor heat exchangers of the operated indoor units, flows in a reverse direction into idle indoor heat exchangers of the indoor units corresponding to the unspecified rooms.
Furthermore, when a pressure pulsation of the refrigerant, which is caused by a compression by a compressor, is transmitted to the indoor heat exchangers, the conventional multiunit-type air conditioners force the indoor heat exchangers to vibrate, thus becoming noisy due to the pressure pulsation of the refrigerant.